Argentina's Kirchner takes Hugo Chavez a Bible

Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine president, arrived in Cuba Friday with a
Bible for cancer-stricken Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, a day after he
missed the inauguration ceremony for his new term.

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner speaks to the media at the National Hotel in Havana.Photo: REUTERS

By Our Foreign Staff

9:48PM GMT 11 Jan 2013

Mrs Kirchner said she would meet Raul Castro, the Cuban president, and his brother Fidel and said the Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches gave her a cross and a Bible for Mr Chavez. "They were very warm. They prayed. I was delighted," she said. "I am bringing the book to my friend Hugo Chavez."

The inauguration of Mr Chavez, who has not been seen since his fourth cancer operation on Dec 11, was postponed by Venezuela's supreme court.

The country's Vice President Nicolas Maduro was also to fly to Cuba on Friday to visit Mr Chavez.

The 58-year-old president has neither been seen nor heard from since the surgery, and he has suffered multiple post-operative complications including a severe lung infection.

He missed his own inauguration on Thursday, but the Supreme Court said he could be sworn in later - in theory meaning he could remain in office for weeks or months from a Havana hospital. There has been no firm evidence he is conscious.

"I'm going to give our commander-president the good news about how the people are working, making revolution with courage, discipline and enthusiasm," Mr Maduro said in a televised broadcast.

Peru's President Ollanta Humala - whom Maduro called another "comrade in arms" of the Venezuelan president - also visited the Cuban capital on Friday.

Unlike after Mr Chavez's previous cancer operations in Cuba, the government has published no photos or video of the former soldier's recovery. Neither has he made any of his normally frequent phone calls back home to Venezuelan state television.

While Mr Maduro has said he spoke to Chavez by telephone and in person during a previous visit to Havana, his comment on Dec 24 that the president had been up walking and doing exercises was met with derision from many in the South American country.

Perhaps more than anything, the silence from the normally garrulous leader famous for his lengthy diatribes has led many to believe his 14 years in power may be coming to an end.

In his absence, government officials were forced to postpone a ceremony on Thursday to swear him in for the new six-year term that he won at a presidential election in October.

A clutch of Latin American and Caribbean leaders attended a rally that went ahead in Caracas regardless, where thousands of red-shirted loyalists held aloft copies of the constitution and were symbolically sworn-in in Mr Chavez's place.